New Jersey Plan for Sports Betting Halted

By The Associated Press

Oct. 24, 2014

TRENTON — A federal judge granted a request on Friday from the four major United States professional sports leagues and the N.C.A.A. to temporarily stop New Jersey from allowing legalized sports betting.

The judge, Michael Shipp, issued a temporary restraining order based on a request by the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The leagues’ lawsuit against the state to permanently prevent it from allowing sports betting will now proceed.

“This is a temporary order while the core issues surrounding sports wagering in New Jersey are fully considered by the court,” Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Mr. Christie, said in a statement.

After the ruling was issued, Monmouth Park racetrack said its plan to start accepting bets on Sunday had been shelved. New Jersey would have become only the second state in the country, after Nevada, to allow wagering on individual games at locations known as sports books.

In an opinion read in court, Judge Shipp said the leagues had demonstrated they would be “irreparably harmed” if sports betting was allowed. “More legal gambling leads to more total gambling, which in turns leads to an increased incentive to fix plaintiffs’ matches,” he said.

New Jersey, which views sports betting as a lifeline for its flagging casino and horse-racing industries, previously lost a constitutional challenge to the federal law that bans state-sponsored sports gambling.

Instead, Mr. Christie relied on a ruling by a federal appeals court last year that said the federal law in question did not prohibit New Jersey “from repealing its ban on sports wagering.” The leagues claim the state is violating the law because racetracks and casinos are heavily regulated by the state.

Judge Shipp indicated that the temporary restraining order was necessary to ensure that the issue was argued in court.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Court Halts New Jersey Plan to Legalize Sports Betting. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe